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Owen VanNewkirk's return to wood bat paying dividends as playoffs approach
Owen VanNewkirk went 4-for-4 in Rayson Miller's Wednesday win. (Photo: BILLY HEYEN)
EAST IRONDEQUOIT, N.Y. — Owen VanNewkirk went 5-for-7 during the first weekend of the American Legion season swinging a wood bat. But this year in District 7, players are allowed to swing metal for the first time. So as he saw his teammates make the switch, VanNewkirk went for it, too.
After five games and a 2-for-14 skid, VanNewkirk reverted — back to the bat that worked in last season's state tournament run and the bat that he swings at school. The return to his trusty wooden bat has paid dividends.
"Everybody else is going to metal, so I probably should make the switch," VanNewkirk remembered thinking. "I didn't want to lose a game…"
"It ain't working. I've got to go back," he thought after the rough stretch.
VanNewkirk rapped out four hits in four at bats on Wednesday in Rayson Miller's 4-0 win over Irondequoit Post at Eastridge High School. That included a ground-rule double in the seventh inning, along with a run and an RBI. VanNewkirk, nearly 6-foot-5 and Rayson Miller's two-hitter, has rediscovered his line-drive stroke that makes him so pivotal to Rayson Miller's success with the playoffs just more than a week away.
"I've kind of just been grinding it out, and today kind of just paid off," VanNewkirk.
At first glance, one might suspect VanNewkirk is a home-run hitter. He catches and plays first base. He's tall. Rayson Miller head coach Tom Sapienza has entrusted him with the two-hole basically every game the past two seasons, a new-age lineup slot for a team's best hitter. But VanNewkirk has emphasized, time and again, that's not who he is.
When Rayson Miller took part in a charity home run derby last Saturday, VanNewkirk didn't hit a ball over the fence from a home plate located behind the pitcher's mound. He couldn't stop hitting line drives. After the derby, he was content with that: "I'll let other guys hit home runs. I'll take my RBIs."
Owen VanNewkirk (@hflcsdathletics) is 3-3 and scores a run on this hard-hit ball. 4-0 RM in top four. @PickinSplinters @jml5798 pic.twitter.com/By5XuZhqZK
— Billy Heyen (@Wheyen3) July 3, 2019
That's what he hit Wednesday. In his first at bat, VanNewkirk worked the count to 3-2. Then he saw a fastball up, which he lined the other way into right for a single. His second time, a first-pitch up in the zone ended in a liner for a hit to center field. Irondequoit's coach, Andrew Bonano, warned his catcher that VanNewkirk handles everything up.
"I know I'm hitting well when I use the opposite field well," VanNewkirk said. "After my first at bat, when I drove a ball to right field, I knew I could have a good day."
VanNewkirk's Easton metal bat is pretty balanced weight-wise, he said, while his wooden bat is more top-heavy. Since he's swung it more in the past year, it's a "comfort thing" for him to get back to swinging the wood. In his third at bat, VanNewkirk showed he could hit the ball to all fields, yanking a second-pitch fastball down the third-base line and off a diving Chad Gartland's glove. It brought in Ian Read to score.
And in his final time at the plate, leading off the seventh, VanNewkirk took a curveball for a ball on the first pitch. Then, he laced a ball to left center that bounced over the fence for a ground rule double.
And Owen VanNewkirk laces another, a 4-4 day for the big fella from @HFLCSDAthletics. This one a ground rule double. @PickinSplinters @jml5798 pic.twitter.com/Hg7ZE3paIT
As he came off the field, one of VanNewkirk's teammates suggested he needed to hit the weight room because the ball hadn't carried out of the park. So VanNewkirk dropped to the ground and did a pushup.
"He makes it look so easy," Rayson Miller's Hayden Smith said, laughing. "Everyone was timing it up. It seemed like every first pitch Owen would just hit a line drive into the gap."
While Rayson Miller packed up after its win was complete, VanNewkirk shouted: "Best thing about this day: I don't have to work tomorrow." Asked about it afterwards, VanNewkirk grinned sheepishly.
"It's good to know that you don't have to get up in the morning to work after that game," VanNewkirk said. "But that was good. That was one of the best games we've played as a team, and we're starting to click now."
District 7 American Legion baseball, Hayden Smith, Irondequoit Post, Owen VanNewkirk, Rayson Miller, Tom Sapienza
Owen VanNewkirk's return to wood bat paying dividends as playoffs approach added by Billy Heyen on July 3, 2019


Containing bacteria, algae and tiny shrimp, this ecosphere, located in the Museum's Cullman Hall of the Universe, was sealed in 1999 and hasn't been opened since—it's a self-sustaining habitat.
No feeding, no overpopulation, no pollution! These organisms stay alive year after year. How does this sealed ecosphere actually work? Algae make food from sunlight. Shrimp take oxygen from the water and exhale carbon dioxide; algae take in CO2 and give off O2. Microbes feed the shrimp—and the CO2-rich shrimp poop helps the algae and microbes!
Find the ecosphere, and much more information about it, at the Museum with the help of the Explorer app. Download Museum's Explorer app, now available in Beta, on the App Store and on Google Play.


and, somebody wrote another lampoon, starting: "Glory be to God for bottled things ............". anybody know it?
I really like these "spoof" poems- especially when they are well done. It not only introduces me to the author and their poetry, but to the original works as well. Well done, Mary Lee.


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Jadon Sancho- A Youngster Who Can Make All The Difference For England At Euro 2020
Rishav Roy
Currently, one of the brightest English sensations, Jadon Sancho has been awarded the Bundesliga Player of the month for October, 24 hours after he got his debut England cap against USA. The teenager entertained the Wembley crowd with his speed, flicks and sublime touches, a charismatic player, England direly needs for Euro 2020. Sancho left Manchester City for lack of first team football to join German outlet, Borussia Dortmund. The 19 year old impressed the national selectors with his run of 5 goals and 6 assists with a majority of them coming from the bench as an impact player.
He got a call up in English national squad in Wayne Rooney's farewell match against USA where the veteran striker praised Sancho's skills and touches hailing him as a future prospect, someone who can carry his baton forward. "Jadon is an unusual story for an English player," said England manager Gareth Southgate of his decision to blood Sancho. "He has been brave enough to go abroad. He hass played in the Champions League and excelled from the bench in the Bundesliga."
Much thanks to Sancho's star performance, Borussia Dortmund are sitting comfortably above the table 6 points clear of second placed Bayern Munich at the winter break. They finished at the top of Group A of the Champions League as well. Dortmund skipper and midfield starlet believes Jadon Sancho and Jacob Brun Larson can help mount the team's first sustained title challenge since they last won the league under Jurgen Klopp in 2012.
There has been talk for many years about the lack of opportunities given to young domestic talents at top English clubs and whether it is good for their development. Over the past years, a lot of national team talent has been just sitting on the bench or going out on loan to clubs from lower leagues, though that is no more the case now.
Jadon Sancho has clearly been an exception! He went out of one of the best squad in the Premier league in order to take up the challenge of first team football that too in a foreign league like Bundesliga. An 18-year-old who flourishing at Dortmund and has been called up for his country.
He probably isn't exactly ready yet for the likes of Real Madrid or Barcelona and they probably are not interested in him either but he could do well at a club such as Dortmund which is still a place where there is pressure to perform week in, week out and he will get regular playing time.
Riding the example of Jadon Sancho, Chelsea's wonder-kid Callum Hudson Odoi is dreaming of a switch to the German champions with Bayern already matching his release clause of €35m. He along with Reiss Nelson, 19 at Hoffenheim can be example of English superstars to excel in foreign leagues.
The future looks really bright for these young talents and it will be interesting to see how things go forward for this player, who has been linked with a host of Premier League clubs in recent times too.
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You are here: Home / Investment News / Study shows low fees and high performance don't mix in KiwiSaver
Study shows low fees and high performance don't mix in KiwiSaver
Binu Paul: Pocketwise co-founder
A new study has failed to find any link between low fees and outperformance of KiwiSaver funds.
In fact, the analysis by Binu Paul, co-founder of online financial product comparison site, Pocketwise, shows even the worst-of-the-best KiwiSaver funds in the study period typically outperformed cheaper options – often by 1 per cent or more.
The Pocketwise study compared the five-year (or 10-year where available) rolling returns (after tax and fees) of 103 KiwiSaver diversified funds over six annual periods ending March 31 from 2013 to 2018.
Based on broad asset class weightings the analysis lumped the funds into three categories analogous to conservative, balanced and growth funds – including only the highest-performing 15 per cent funds and the cheapest 15 per cent of funds in the final analysis.
Cheap products only crossed over into the high-performance data on three occasions – for growth and balanced categories in 2013 and conservative in 2018 – and always at the bottom end of that scale.
The research shows the lowest-performing of the top 15 per cent funds outgunned the best cheap versions by close to 1 per cent or more on 11 of the 18 data points (three risk categories measured over six annual periods).
According to the study, the highest-performing KiwiSaver fund outperformed the lowest-returning comparative cheap product by margins ranging from 1.66 per cent to 6.15 per cent over the six-year analysis period.
Using tighter asset allocation ranges – which cut the sample down to 47 funds – cheaper funds only reached high-performance levels in two of the 18 occasions measured.
Paul said running the study using a June year-end data yielded similar results to the March figures.
However, he said the five-year return data was "arguably" insufficient to draw firm conclusions on KiwiSaver trends.
"We also looked at all the funds in each of the categories that have a full 10-year history," Paul said in a statement. "Remarkably, even within that longer timeframe there was not a single instance where the cheapest 15% of funds featured in the list of highest performing 15% of funds."
The study says given KiwiSaver has been operating in mostly benign market conditions the performance to date "does not provide any guidance on future direction of such trends".
Paul said the study also excluded KiwiSaver funds without five-year histories, some of which offered low-fee options.
"With more and more pressure on providers to reduce fees, and with the launch of newer KiwiSaver funds with lower fee structures, it could mean that in future years the observed trends may change, but only time will tell," he said in the release.
While the Pocketwise study found no correlation between high-performance and low fees in KiwiSaver, the report says investors do need to watch fund costs.
"Given that returns are not guaranteed, but fees are charged regardless of gains or losses in the fund, a higher fee is a guaranteed drag on returns," the report says. "As such, it is a significant determinant of future savings balances. Paying more fees does not necessarily mean earning more from those funds."
Pocketwise launched last year as an online financial product comparison site covering items such as KiwiSaver, mortgage and credit cards. The site will also soon add retail managed funds to the product suite.
Paul is also founder of online KiwiSaver comparison tool, SavvyKiwi.